The present invention relates to a tethered digital butler consumer electronics product and method. The tethered digital butler, of a price and form factor suitable for consumer electronics markets of developed and developing countries, includes a communications and multi-media console and a wireless remote. The remote may resemble a handheld personal computer (HPC), a palm-held personal computer (PPC or PDA) or a smart phone, but has a low cost and feature set supported by the console that is novel in the consumer electronics market. In particular, this disclosure relates to combining telephone service, device control and, optionally, a fingerprint reader for easy user identification/authorization and personalization. The remote may be packaged separately from a console and sold to interact with capabilities of a communications and multi-media console from a different source, such as one running on a Windows, OS X or Linux platform.
Convergence of digital devices is not unbounded, because it is guided by market realities. Many concepts are floated as trial balloons that burst, never to see an enabling development effort or a reduction to practice. Some convergence trends are strong and noteworthy. Cellular smartphones or business phones such as Treo or Blackberry products are becoming powerful and supplanting separate PDAs. These smartphones go with the user across a cellular network and even overseas. They are untethered, packing many features into a small form factor, not requiring a console. Another trend is to repackage a PC as media center, complete with a wireless keyboard. Recent announcements suggest interfacing a Microsoft media center with a Bluetooth-equipped cellular telephone to use the sound reproduction of a TV as a sort of speaker phone, relying on the cellular telephone for network connectivity. In both instances, the telephone features are untethered from and do not depend on availability of a console.
For developing countries and cost-conscious buyers, the Treo and media center approaches are over-built and too expensive. An opportunity arises to provide a low-cost integrated consumer electronics system that includes a novel feature set and a cost-effective allocation of technical tasks between a remote and a console.